Social Change and Contemporary Tribal Societies

Tribal Social Change: Overview

Indian tribes have never been static, isolated entities. Their social structure, economy, religion, and political life have been in continuous transformation, accelerated dramatically by colonialism, post-independence development policies, and globalisation. Understanding this change requires examining both the external forces acting on tribal communities and the internal responses they have generated through reform, resistance, adaptation, and assertion.

A number of anthropologists have studied social change among Indian tribes Majumdar (1947), Elwin (1943), S.C. Dube (1960), the Tribal Welfare Committee (1952), Roy Burman (1971), and L.P. Vidyarthi (1977). Their frameworks were largely in terms of the orientation of contact with mainstream society.

Frameworks for Understanding Tribal Social Change

Majumdar's Three-Class Classification

D.N. Majumdar identified three categories of tribal communities based on the degree of social change and degree of Hindu influence:

• Primitive tribes outside the pale of Hindu influence the "real primitives" (Andaman Islanders, Birhors, Juangs).
• Primitive tribes that have adopted Hindu customs, beliefs, and practices and have shown some association with the Hindu caste system, though not forming prominent castes (Santhal, Oraon, Munda).
• Primitive tribes who are Hinduised but maintain social distance from clean castes, though some are indistinguishable from inferior ranks of the caste order (Gonds, Bhumij, Bhils).

Majumdar concluded that there is hardly any tribal community entirely out of contact with Hindu society assimilation, adaptation, acculturation, and symbiosis are all operating simultaneously.

Vidyarthi's Five-Category Classification

L.P. Vidyarthi (1977) classified Indian tribals into five categories based on degree of Hinduisation, cultural contact, and integration with mainstream society:

• Distinct tribal communities in highly isolated, hunting regions forest hunters (Birhors, Korwas, Kadars, Cholanayagan) and hill cultivators (Maler, hill Kharia, Khond, Asur of Jharkhand).
• Rural tribes dependent on agriculture and allied occupations (Santhals, Munda, Ho, Oraon, Gond, Bhil).
• Semi-acculturated tribals who have blended their own cultural traditions with neighbouring peoples including those living in mixed villages, simple artisans and folk artists (Karmali, Lohar, Gondalia Lohars, Mahalis, Nats of UP, Pradhans of MP/Chhattisgarh/AP).
• Acculturated tribals who have adopted modern occupations in urban and industrial fields and have mixed considerably with the rest of the population industrial labourers and urban workers.
• Totally assimilated tribals who have acquired a place in the Hindu caste ladder (Bhumij, Majhir, Khasas, Raj Gonds).

Tribe-Caste Continuum

F.G. Bailey (1960) and Surajit Sinha (1965) proposed the concept of the tribe-caste continuum rejecting the idea of a sharp binary distinction between tribe and caste. Instead, they argued for a spectrum of social formations ranging from fully tribal at one end to fully caste-integrated at the other, with most groups occupying intermediate positions. The contact between tribal communities and Hindu caste society has been a prolonged, complex, and fluid process. Neither end of the continuum is static: tribes can move toward the caste end through Sanskritisation, while castes can in theory become more tribal through geographical and social isolation.

Colonial Period: Causes and Phases of Tribal Change

Pre-colonial India was a fragmented feudal society with scattered centres of power. Tribal communities dwelt in and around forests on the basis of their traditional rights over forest produce. The arrival of British colonial rule brought the first uniform administration over the subcontinent, and for the first time, tribals experienced direct external rule over themselves.

Colonial Interventions that Drove Change

• Communal land ownership rights were undermined; land was auctioned to the highest bidder creating absentee landlordism and pauperising tribal communities.
• Introduction of intermediaries: traders, moneylenders, and contractors entered tribal areas, compounding economic distress.
• High land revenue demand tribes who were barely accustomed to paying rents were now forced to pay taxes and fines realised ruthlessly by colonial agents. At times they were forced to sell their property, spouses, and children to pay debts.
• Control over forests shifted from tribes to the colonial government through Forest Acts (1865, 1878, 1927). Tribes were treated as encroachers in their own homeland. Restrictions on grazing inside reserved areas robbed them of their livelihood.
• Christian missionary activity added to disruption: the missionaries imposed puritanical ethics on permissive tribal society; evangelisation was inherently ethnocentric. Missionaries collaborated with colonial administration to rationalise British rule.
• The new legal and administrative system was alien to tribals. They could not comprehend the laws; prolonged suffering followed.

K.S. Singh's Three-Phase Classification of Tribal Movements

K.S. Singh (Tribal Movements in India, 1982-83; earlier 1976) is the first comprehensive work classifying tribal movements. He differentiates mainland movements from those of the northeast.

Phase 1 (1795-1860): Primary Resistance Movements coincided with the rise and establishment of the British Empire. Led by traditional tribal chiefs and their subordinates. Main cause: land alienation and loss of occupation. Examples: Chuar rebellion, Kol and Bhumij insurrections, Gond Zamindar resistance, Khond uprisings, Santhal insurrection.

Phase 2 (1860-1920): Revitalisation Movements coincided with intensive colonialism deeper penetration by merchant capital, higher rents, all gains of Phase 1 erased. Unlike Phase 1, these movements developed a religious and political overtone. Tribals introspected their Phase 1 failures and sought to restructure the entire social system. Examples: Munda-Oraon-Santhal movements, Tana Bhagat movement, Bhil movement (Govind Giri). These involved tribal participation in national and agrarian movements and reflected deep pride in tribal cultures.

Phase 3 (1920-1947): Participation in the Nationalist Movement. Several followers of Gandhi emerged among Bhils, Gonds, Hos, Mundas, and Santhals. Both phases of the colonial period were anti-colonial, anti-diku (outsider), and pro-ethnic.

Major Colonial Tribal Movements

Santhal Revolt / Hul (1855)

Began in Birbhum, West Bengal. By 1832 a large area called Damin-i-Koh had been demarcated for the Santhals. But heavy colonial taxes made them indebted to moneylenders (dikus) charging high interest rates when unable to repay, their land was seized. Led by Sidho and Kanhu Murmu, the Santhals pledged to end oppression. Armed with traditional weapons, they marched to Calcutta with their petition. Violence lasted 60 days; thousands of Santhals were killed. The movement compelled the government to create the Santhal Parganas, extract a large volume of land from British possession, and appoint a chief to recover alienated land.

Kherwar / "Sapha Hor" Movement

Kherwar is an ancient name of Santhals, who called themselves "Sapha Hor" (Pure Santhal). Triggered by the desire to revive territorial autonomy. Led by Bhagirath Manjhi (titled Babaji), who promoted social reforms and monotheism urging Santhals to stop sacrifices, worship Lord Ram, and free themselves from tyranny. Arrested in 1868; the movement continued sporadically until the great famine of 1874.

Kol Uprising

The Kol insurrection was the first and last time a confederacy of tribes formed in Chotanagpur Ho, Munda, Oraon, Chero, and Kharwar all participated. Causes were identical: colonial policies, influx of outsiders, and transfer of tribal land to non-tribals. Spontaneous mass violence directed against outsiders, while non-tribal artisans who served the community (like Ghasi chowkidars) were not harmed. Colonial authorities suppressed the revolt; leaders were arrested, executed, or sentenced to life imprisonment.

Munda Rebellion / Ulgulan (1899-1900)

Birsa Munda's movement began as a reform movement urging tribals to stop drinking liquor, clean villages, and abandon witchcraft. He wanted recovery of the Munda glorious past (satyug: constructing embankments, tapping springs, planting orchards, practising cultivation). He identified the causes of Munda suffering: land policies of the British, Hindu landlords and moneylenders, and Christian missionaries. Arrested in 1895, sentenced to two years; released in 1897. Followers then targeted police stations, churches, zamindars, and moneylenders. Birsa Munda died in custody (1900). The movement led to the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act of 1908, which prevented transfer of tribal land to non-tribals.

Sardari Ladai / Mukti Ladai

Followed the post-uprising period when tribes who migrated found their remaining land lost on return. Participants: Mundas, Bhumij, Oraon. Led by clan leaders known as sardars. Initial peaceful methods petitions, prayers, protests demanded restoration of tribal land, forest rights, and abolition of forced labour (beth-begari) and zamindari. Demands rejected by colonial government; violent revolt followed, suppressed in 1890.

Tamar Revolts (1789-1832)

Led by Bholanath Sahay; joined by Oraons, Mundas, Hos, and Kols from several districts. Main cause: faulty alignment system of the British, causing land dispossession. Suppressed in 1832-33.

Khond Uprising

Resistance to British revenue and taxation, and to colonial interference in the practice of human sacrifice (meriah) and female infanticide. Led by young raja Chakra Bisoi; joined by Saoras and other tribal clans of Ghumsar and Kalahandi. Carried out sustained guerrilla warfare and pitched battles against the East India Company.

Devi Movement (Southern Gujarat)

Started as an internal reform movement, later harmonised with elements of the nationalist movement. Triggered by the Abkari Act which imposed a tax on toddy. Parsi liquor dealers paid the tax and forced adivasis to consume factory-produced daru instead. Adivasis used their long tradition of propitiating the Goddess here the Devi assumed the name Salabai, giving messages to abstain from meat and liquor, stop working on non-adivasi fields, and eventually (under nationalist influence) wear khadi and spin the charkha.

Northeast Tribal Movements

The northeast was not completely integrated within the political economy of colonialism and was isolated from the mainland's socio-cultural upheavals. Colonial intervention came relatively late. Nowhere in the northeast are tribal communities in the minority (unlike central India).

Zeiliangrong Movement

Covered three tribal groups: Zeme, Liangmai, and Rongmei Nagas of Manipur. Caused by colonial house taxes, forced labour supply, and absence of protection during the Kuki rebellion. From 1930-31, the movement launched campaigns against British and Manipuri Darbar taxes. Jadonang was executed in Manipur in 1931. Gaidinliu took over, promising a golden age for famine-hit communities facing land alienation. Arrested in 1932; imprisoned for 18 years until Nehru's intervention in 1946. In the 1960s-70s she headed the pan-tribal Zeliangrong Movement demanding unification of Zeme areas across Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur.

Naga Movement

A long history of discontent spanning five decades. The British classified their relations with the Nagas into four periods: control from without (1839-46), expeditions and control from within (1847-50), non-interference (1851-61), and control from within with gradual absorption. The Naga Club was formed in 1918 the first formal identity assertion. The 1929 memorandum to the Simon Commission stated: "You are the only people who have ever conquered us and when you go we should be as we were." The Naga Hills District Tribal Council (1945) marked the beginning of the modern phase and the concept of Naga nationhood. On 14 August 1947, the Naga declared themselves free. Armed insurgency began. In 1963 Nagaland became a separate state. The 1975 Shillong Accord led to partial disarmament. A peace accord with NSCN (IM) was signed in 2015, though the demand for Greater Nagalim (incorporating parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Myanmar) remains unresolved.

Mizo Movement

The Mizo National Famine Front (formed during the 1959 famine) became the Mizo National Front (MNF) in 1961. Under Laldenga, the MNF demanded independence from India. Armed conflict began in 1966. The Mizo Accord of 1986 granted Mizoram statehood on February 20, 1987. The Mizo Movement is now seen as a successful example of resolving ethnic conflict through dialogue and political compromise.

Kuki-Meitei Conflict (Manipur)

Rooted in history; primarily about land, identity, and political control. British colonial policies, including land laws and administrative divisions, created tensions between Kukis, Meiteis, and Nagas. Post-independence differences over land ownership, cultural recognition, and political demands deepened. The Meitei demand for Scheduled Tribe status (which Kukis fear could further marginalise hill tribes) added a new dimension. In May 2023, violence erupted between the two groups, causing deaths, destruction, and mass displacement. Peace remains fragile.

Left-Wing Extremism (Naxalism)

Originated from a peasant uprising in Naxalbari, West Bengal, in 1967. Inspired by Maoist ideology, it initially focused on land redistribution and exploitation of marginalised communities. LWE gained momentum in tribal areas due to widespread deprivation and displacement caused by development projects and mining. The People's War Group (PWG) and Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) merged in 2004 to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist). By the mid-2000s, LWE spread to over 90 districts, forming a "Red Corridor" from Andhra Pradesh to Bihar. Key battleground: Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh where conflict between Maoists and the government-backed Salwa Judum militia displaced thousands. The Supreme Court declared Salwa Judum unconstitutional in 2011, citing infringement on tribal rights. As of 2023, LWE persists in pockets in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

Post-Independence Social Changes Among Tribal Communities

Socio-Cultural Changes

• Sanskritisation:: Contact with Hindus led many tribal communities to adopt Hindu values, rituals, and dress. Various higher-caste groups served as reference groups for this social mobility. Santhals and Gonds are the most prominent examples they adopted Kshatriya modes of Sanskritisation as the easiest and most popular form of upward mobility. The process of peasantisation and Sanskritisation operated simultaneously. However, Sanskritisation tends to reduce the distinctive tribal identity rather than empower tribal communities on their own terms.
• Changes in marriage:: Decline of polygyny and polyandry; changes in the mode of spouse acquisition; transformation of marriage rituals; changes in premarital sex norms; replacement of bride price with dowry.
• Status of women:: Traditionally, tribal women enjoyed relatively equal status with men. Urbanisation and Sanskritisation have reduced women's status cases of rise in dowry, female infanticide, and curtailment of economic autonomy are increasing.
• Youth dormitories (ghontul, yuva-ghar):: A major institution of tribal socialisation and community life, on a downward path due to spread of Christianity (which considered them places of "immoral sex") and Hindu missionary activity (which burned some). Their decline marks a significant erosion of traditional community fabric.
• Value system:: Tribal beliefs, rituals, ideas, practices, and customs are increasingly modified by the onslaught of mainstream culture. The traditional world-view based on nature-worship, communal ethics, and ritual obligations is under pressure.
• Breakdown of communal living:: Traditional communal lifestyle collective activities, shared labour, strong mutual support has fragmented under the influence of changes in occupation, migration, rise of private property, and urban privacy norms.

Economic Changes

• From self-reliance to state dependence:: Tribes historically adapted to their environment with a self-reliant economy based on forest, agriculture, and reciprocal exchange. Over time, land alienation, displacement, and destruction of traditional livelihoods have transformed many into poor communities requiring continuous state assistance.
• From barter to market:: Barter exchange the major mode of inter-tribal and tribe-outsider exchange is being replaced by market systems driven by profit. Traditional inter-tribal markets served socio-cultural as well as economic functions; under market forces, these either declined or were transformed into purely commercial spaces. Reciprocity, redistribution, and cooperation as economic values have been eroded.
• Peasantisation and depeasantisation:: Substantial sectors of tribes from central India (Santhals, Oraons, Mundas) moved into the fold of peasantry under colonial agricultural expansion. Simultaneously, others, after losing their land, were pushed into plantations (Assam tea gardens), industrial labour, share-cropping, and urban informal work. Peasantisation and depeasantisation operated at the same time.
• Migration for employment:: Tribal people suffer predominantly from poverty-induced migration. Causes: rain-fed subsistence agriculture, land fragmentation, illegal land alienation, deforestation, decreasing forest access, and drought. Such migration is more accurately described as "forced migration" compelled by the destruction of traditional livelihood bases.
• Land alienation, poverty, indebtedness:: Systematic alienation from land through colonial revenue systems, post-independence development projects (dams, mines), and moneylender exploitation has made land alienation the central economic grievance of tribal communities. Examples: Bailadilla iron ore mine (Bastar), Hirakud and Upper Indravati hydro-electric projects, POSCO and Vedanta projects (Odisha), Sardar Sarovar dam (Gujarat) all caused large-scale tribal displacement.

Political Changes

• Clash between traditional and democratic institutions:: Tribal societies have their own heads who decide over various issues. Entry of democratic institutions has created a clash between traditional tribal leadership and government representatives.
• Alien legal system:: Tribals have their own methods of conflict resolution through mediation, negotiation, oath, ordeals, and group decision-making. The modern judicial system is alien to them and ill-suited to their lifestyle. Inability to comprehend legal processes has led to prolonged suffering.
• Reservations and mainstream political integration:: Constitutional reservations from panchayat to Parliament have enabled tribal representation. However, true political influence over policies and decision-making is limited. In some cases, tribals are put up as proxy candidates for strong local dominant-caste leaders, so the elected person is tribal but real power remains elsewhere.
• Rise of political consciousness:: Since the late 1990s, several tribal groups have mobilised to retain rights over land and forest resources. Contemporary tribal politics revolves around everyday concerns rights over land, water, forests; access to development benefits; protection from displacement. The Forest Rights Act (2006) and PESA are direct products of adivasi political assertion. The demand for Jharkhand statehood added new dimensions to tribal politics. The legislative presence of ST elites ensures that tribal problems are not dismissed.

Impact of Modern Democratic Institutions on Tribal Communities

Nature of interaction between modern institutions and traditional tribal institutions is characterised by both conflict and accommodation. Modern democratic institutions have brought reservation benefits, legal protections (Forest Rights Act, PESA, Chotanagpur Tenancy Act, Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act), and political representation. At the same time, they have undermined traditional institutions: the tribal panchayat or Gram Sabha is often marginalised; formal courts replace customary dispute resolution; government welfare schemes create dependency rather than building on existing community capacities.

Key tensions: the modern legal framework assumes individual property rights, while tribal communities are built on communal land tenure. Development projects impose decisions on tribal communities without adequate prior, informed consent. The Fifth Schedule and Sixth Schedule of the Constitution provide special protections for tribal areas, but implementation is consistently weak. PESA (Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996) theoretically gives tribal gram sabhas authority over natural resources, but has been routinely bypassed by state governments for mining and other projects.

Denotified Tribes

In 1871, the British declared certain tribal, nomadic, and semi-nomadic groups as "born criminals" under the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) those living in forests or engaged in pastoral activities were branded as hereditary criminals. Some were communities that had resisted British aggression or aided freedom fighters, for which the colonial state sought to criminalise and neutralise them.

Post-independence in 1952, the Government of India "denotified" them under the Habitual Offenders Act but the new act made no provisions for their livelihood. An estimated 801 denotified, nomadic, and semi-nomadic tribes in India have a population of approximately 13.5 crore people. Of these, 22 tribes are in the SC list, 27 in the ST list, and 421 (about 2.2 crore people) in the OBC list. Around 227 tribes comprising nearly 56 lakh people have not been included in any of these lists they remain outside the reach of affirmative action entirely.

Conditions: chronic poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, substandard living, and the social stigma of the "criminal" label. Children beg for food rather than attending school. Human rights violations are pervasive. The Renke Commission (2008) and the Idate Commission (2017) studied their situation and recommended special welfare policies. The DNT population continues to face identity crisis due to absence of statutory documents many lack ration cards, birth certificates, and other identity documents.